Excerpts from a recent talk given by Slovenian cultural critic Slavoj Zizek, in which he addresses Bush in Iraq; utopianism; the "end of history"; the nature of tolerance; and much more. Also, Max Elbaum with War Times shares impressions of his recent visit to Vietnam.

A conversation about the revolutionary Russian dramatist Meyerhold with scholar Mel Gordon and playwright and director of Shotgun Player’s "The Death of Meyerhold" currently running at Live Oak Theater in Berkeley.

In a world where war and conflict seem unavoidable, how can music help us, console us, empower us? U.C. Berkeley music professor Davitt Moroney taught a freshman seminar called "Come Woeful Orpheus: Music’s Voice in a Violent World"; it explored ways in which musicians have raised voices of peace and consolation in response to private … Continued

At the recent Marxism and the World Stage conference, left theorist Michael Hardt, co-author with Antonio Negri of the book Empire, spoke about the US in Iraq; the hegemony of what he calls immaterial labor; and his and Negri’s concept of the multitude.

What happens to human motivations, values and desires in capitalist societies? What attitudes and beliefs arise that help to perpetuate commodity-dominated systems? Both Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud were interested in the unconscious; can any of the latter’s insights be integrated into Marxist theory? Social theorist Richard Lichtman has devoted years of research to such … Continued